Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for the treatment of amblyopia.
Brief Description of the Related Art
Amblyopia, also known as “lazy eye”, designates a reduced vision in an eye that has mostly not received adequate use during early childhood. Quite often amblyopia results from either a misalignment of a child's eyes, such as crossed eyes, or a difference in image quality between the two eyes, with one eye focusing better than the other one of the two eyes.
The visual acuity of one eye can becomes stronger under these circumstances, which leads to suppression of the image of the other eye. If this condition persists, the weaker eye with the suppressed image may loose more and more of its visual acuity.
With early diagnosis and treatment, the sight of the “lazy eye” may be restored avoiding surgical interventions. It is generally necessary to first treat or identify the underlying cause before treating the amblyopia.
Glasses are commonly prescribed to improve focusing or misalignment of the eyes. Surgery may be performed on the eye muscles to straighten the eyes, if non-surgical treatments are unsuccessful. The surgery may be helpful in the treatment of amblyopia by allowing the eyes to work together better.
Eye exercises are recommended either before or after surgery to correct faulty visual habits often associated with strabismus and to teach correct use of both eyes. Training of the lazy eye will usually be done by occlusion of the eye with the higher visual acuity.
International patent application No WO 2007/026368 (Rabner) teaches an apparatus for testing, diagnosing and treating vision or eyes of a patient. This patent application fails, however, to teach a method for treatment of amblyopia.
A publication by Kämpf et al, “Unterstützende Amblyopiebehandlung durch Computerspiele mit Hintergrundstimulation: eine placebokontrollierte Studie”, Klinische Monatsblätter für Augenheilunkde, 2001; 2189: 243-250, shows the results of treating children for amblyopia using software games.